


The Last Straw

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Arguing, Face Slapping, Gen, Underage Smoking, caught lying, kicked out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24388366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Jean told his parents he would stop smoking, which was all fine and good until his mother caught him breaking his promise.
Kudos: 11
Collections: Moms Made Fullmetal Week 2020





	The Last Straw

**Author's Note:**

> DAY 3: Disappointment
> 
> I've written the dialogue in a 'country slang' common in the American South.

“Jean Havoc!”

Her son’s face turns with a jerk toward her, his eyes wide and shock written all across his features.

And the cigarette in his mouth falls to the ground.

“Ma, I can explain,” he says, his voice startled and nearly cracking with fear.

Nancy Havoc storms over to where he’s sitting on the steps behind the hardware store with two other boys. “Y’all git!” she shouts at his friends before stomping Jean’s dropped cigarette into absolute mush. She slaps his cheek so hard that her hand hurts and a palm print blooms red on her son’s face.

“What’s it gonna take, Jean!?” she yells. “Your Pop and I are strugglin’ to make ends meet and you’re wastin’ money on these things!?”

He doesn’t look at her. He doesn’t apologize. He stares off the right and doesn’t move.

“How much didja spend on ‘em?” Nancy demands to know.

“Fifteen and a half Cenz,” he murmurs reluctantly.

She swears at him, and he hangs his head in shame. He knows it takes quite a lot to make her mad enough to cuss, and she’s letting every word she knows fly free from her mouth.

“Fifteen and a half Cenz could feed us twice! It could pay most of our light bill!” She wipes her brow with the back of her hand and crosses her arms. “I knew your hair smelled like smoke again lately!”

“It ain’t like I was drinking beer or anythin’,” he protests. His answer infuriates her, but Nancy doesn’t strike him again. Instead, she asks for his cigarettes. When he refuses, she blinks in surprise.

“Pardon me?” the ire in her voice making it sound an octave higher than usual.

“I ain’t givin’ ‘em to ya,” he says, standing. “You’ll crush ‘em, and that’s just as wasteful.”

“Listen here,” Nancy growls, shaking her finger at her much taller son, “ya might be bigger than me, but I’ll bust your ass all the way up to Cuyler County if ya don’t hand ‘em over!”

“Fine!” Jean snaps. “Ya want ‘em so bad? Grab ‘em from me!” he shouts, holding them up over her head. 

Nancy is appalled at his behavior. He knows she’d have to jump to get them, and at first she refuses. He goads her by saying if they’re really so bad, she’d do whatever she needed to in order to get them away from him. She gives in and hops to try and grab them, only for him to yank them away at the last second. 

Fed up with his behavior, she swings her handbag at him, not aiming for the pack of cigarettes or his thick head, but rather his arm. The bag’s strap wraps around his forearm and she jerks it toward the ground, throwing Jean off balance and causing him to drop the tobacco products. She swipes them up and grabs his ear, tugging him up again to walk behind her.

“Your Pop’ll smoke ‘em, and you’re going into the army!”

“C’mon, Ma! Let me go!” he wails as she drags him from behind the store and out to the street. “I’m sorry! I’ll stop! I’ll give ya half my paycheck!”

“Uh-uh, I’ve heard that song and dance before!” she replies, ignoring the stares from the passersby out and about town that day. She opens the door on the family pick up truck and forces him inside. “You’ve had more than enough warnin’s about this. This is the last straw!” She climbs in the driver’s seat and cranks the old engine, taking the shortest route home.

“Please, Ma,” Jean begs. “I’m sorry! I won’t do it no more, I promise!”

“Like ya promised last time?” She scoffs, shifting the engine to trundle up a hill. “Not only did ya disobey me, but ya humiliated me with that little game of Keep Away!” Shaking her head, she wonders aloud where on earth she went wrong and why he was turning out to be such a rebel. After all, she and her husband have broken their backs to make sure he had a good home and good food. They ride the rest of the way in silence, and upon pulling up to the house, the head of the Havoc family, Aaron, puts his hands on his hips and looks at them with confusion.

“You’re home early, Jean!” he calls from the porch, before registering that Nancy is livid. 

“Caught ‘im smokin’ again,” she tells him, pushing Jean ahead of her up the front steps. “Told ‘im he can see the army recruiter in the morning.”

Aaron frowns at his son. “Jean…” he said, shaking his head, clearly disappointed and clearly upset. He notes the handprint on his cheek and tells him to go inside and put some ice on his face. Jean does as he’s told and Aaron frowns at Nancy.

“Ya didn’t have to hit ‘im  _ that _ hard, Nan.”

She glares at her husband of twenty years. “He held them cigarettes over my head and made me jump for ‘em! He humiliated me!”

“Where? Behind the grocer’s?” When she reveals it was actually behind the hardware store, he chides her again. “And how many people saw it?”

Nancy rolls her eyes and goes into the house. “That ain’t the point!” She takes the cigarettes out of her purse and sticks them in his shirt pocket. “We agreed last time that if we caught ‘im sneakin’ around and smokin’ that we were gonna send ‘im to the army! Are ya backtrackin’ on me?”

Aaron gives her a stern look. “I think ya need to go lie down and rest upstairs. I’ll handle Jean.”

When she throws a fit at being removed from handing down the ultimate punishment, Aaron sticks the cigarettes back into her purse, telling her to some one herself and calm down. He pardons himself to handle the situation, and Nancy screams out of pure frustration. Nonetheless, she heeds her husband’s advice and lights one of the cigarettes and sits down angrily in one of the old rocking chairs on the porch.

It seems like the two of them talk for over an hour. Nancy smokes four cigarettes before someone comes outside. It’s Jean, and he’s bringing her a glass of iced tea. He looks in the ashtray and comments, “You’re gonna make yourself sick if you keep smokin’ ‘em like that.”

“Shut up,” she hisses.

“So I talked to Pop… He’s gonna take me up to East City in the morning.” He sits down in the other rocker beside her. “I told him y’all can sell all my stuff to help out with the bills. I got a little money put up that I’ll split with ya, too.” He chuckles. “I gotta have enough for smokes ‘til I get my first check.”

Nancy says nothing, just closes her eyes, shakes her head, and flips her ashes away from her tea. He goes on to apologize for being a shit today, and hopes he can make her proud in the army.

“After all, I’m a pretty good shot! Seems like armies need guys like me!”

“You’ll put on a uniform and kill people but ya won’t stop smokin’... Well, I guess ya made your decision.” She stubs the cigarette out and takes a long drink. Turning to him, she feels defeated. “I’ll pray ya don’t get killed, and I hope you find whatever makes you happy on that path.”

“I hope so, too.”

In the morning, just as the sun is coming over the horizon, Jean and Aaron get ready to make the long drive into East City. Nancy stands in the front hallway, watching them make sure Jean has all the paperwork he’ll need to enlist and any little things he wants to take with him. 

Before they walk out the door, she grabs her boy and hugs him as tightly as she can. Even though she was madder than a wet cat at him yesterday, she can’t bear to see him go now. She does her best to keep her tears from falling, but fails. He tells her not to worry, and she tells him she was sorry for slapping him. Aaron says they need to get going soon, and Nancy lets her only child go. Jean kisses her cheek and promises he’ll call when he can, and the two of them exit into the dewy morning. The truck grumbles to life, and then they’re on their way, Nancy waving until the vehicle is out of sight.

She falls apart in the doorway, wishing he’d chosen to stay home, and praying they don’t send him to the conflict brewing in Ishval.


End file.
